Wireless communication method, terminal device, and network device

ABSTRACT

Disclosed in embodiments of the present invention are a wireless communication method, a network device, and a terminal device. The method comprises: a first device receives network slice information sent by a second device, wherein the network slice information is to indicate multiple network slices; the first device determines a target network slice from the multiple network slices, the target network slice comprising at least one network slice supported by the first device; and the first device performs wireless communication according to the target network slice.

CROSS REFERENCE

The application is a U.S. national phase application of InternationalApplication No. PCT/CN2016/105436, filed on Nov. 11, 2016, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications, and inparticular, to a wireless communication method, a terminal device and anetwork device.

BACKGROUND

With the development of wireless network communication technology, thedemand for wireless communication services is gradually increasing,showing a diversified trend. In an existing wireless communicationsystem, in addition to the ordinary voice and data services betweenpeople, the Internet of Things business has gradually become aninseparable part of the wireless communication service. In the future,with the development of the Internet of Things and the IndustrialInternet, more and more diverse terminals will access the network anduse some or all of capabilities and resources of the access network toserve them. Therefore, in the research of wireless network communicationtechnology, researchers introduce the concept of network slicing, whichis to make functions of the network (including a core network and anaccess network) modular, so that different terminals use customizednetwork functions for different business needs.

It should be noted that the information disclosed in the backgroundsection above is only for enhancing the understanding of the backgroundof the present disclosure, and thus may include information that doesnot constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

SUMMARY

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a wirelesscommunication method, a terminal device and a network device.

In one aspect, a wireless communication method is provided, including: afirst device receiving network slice information sent by a seconddevice, the network slice information being configured to indicatemultiple network slices; the first device determining a target networkslice from the multiple network slices according to the network sliceinformation, the target network slice including at least one networkslice supported by the first device; and the first device performingwireless communication according to the target network slice.

Optionally, when the first device is a terminal device and the seconddevice is a network device, the network slice information is configuredto indicate multiple network slices supported by the network device, andthe target network slice is supported by both the first terminal deviceand the second device.

Optionally, when the first device is a network device and the seconddevice is a terminal device, the network slice information is configuredto indicate multiple network slices supported by the terminal device.

In a possible implementation, the method further includes: the firstdevice acquiring first priority information and/or second priorityinformation, wherein the first priority information is configured toindicate a sequence of processing network slices supported by the seconddevice from the multiple network slices by the second device, the secondpriority information is configured to indicate a sequence of processingnetwork slices supported by the first device; wherein the first devicedetermining a target network slice from the multiple network slicesaccording to the network slice information includes: the first devicedetermining the target network slice from the multiple network slicesaccording to the first priority information and/or the second priorityinformation.

Optionally, the first device may select a network slice with the highestpriority from the network slices processed by two ends of thecommunication device, to perform communication.

In a possible implementation, the network slice information includes thefirst priority information, and the first device acquiring the firstpriority information includes: the first device acquiring the firstpriority information from the network slice information.

In a possible implementation, the first device is a terminal device, thesecond device is a network device, and the first device performingwireless communication according to the target network slice includes:the terminal device accessing the network device according to the targetnetwork slice; and/or the terminal device residing in a cell to whichthe target network slice belongs according to the target network slice.

Optionally, the first device is a network device, the second device is aterminal device, and the first device performing wireless communicationaccording to the target network slice includes: the network deviceperforming resource configuration for the terminal device according tothe target network slice; and/or the network device triggering handoveror redirection of the terminal device to a cell to which the targetnetwork slice belongs according to the target network slice.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device residing in acell to which the target network slice belongs according to the targetnetwork slice includes: the terminal device residing in a cell to whichthe target network slice belongs according to the target network slice,when determining that a network slice with highest priority from networkslices supported by the network device and processed by the networkdevice and a network slice with highest priority from network slicessupported by the terminal device and processed by the terminal deviceare identical.

Optionally, when the terminal device determines that a network slicewith highest priority from network slices supported by the networkdevice and a network slice with highest priority from network slicessupported by the terminal device are different, the terminal deviceselects a cell under another network device by means of reselection forresiding.

In a possible implementation manner, the network slice informationfurther includes a probability of the terminal device to access each ofthe multiple network slices, the terminal device accessing the networkdevice according to the target network slice includes: the terminaldevice accessing the network device according to a probability of aservice of the terminal device to access the target network slice.

In a possible implementation manner, the first device is an accessnetwork device, the second device is a terminal device, and the firstdevice acquiring first priority information includes: the access networkdevice receiving the first priority information authenticated by a corenetwork device and sent by the terminal device.

In a possible implementation, the first device is an access networkdevice and the second device is a terminal device, the method furtherincludes: the access network device sending the first priorityinformation to a core network device when determining that the firstpriority information needs to be authenticated; the access networkdevice receiving an acknowledgement message of the priority informationsent by the core network device.

Optionally, the terminal device sends the priority information to thecore network device by using the signaling of an access layer or anon-access stratum, and the core network device feeds back to the accessnetwork device after completing the verification and confirmation.

Optionally, the terminal device sends the priority information to theaccess network device directly through the access layer, and ifnecessary, the access network device forwards the information to thecore network device for verification and confirmation.

In one aspect, a wireless communication method is provided, including: asecond device determining network slice information, wherein the networkslice information is configured to indicate multiple network slices; thesecond device sending the network slice information to a first device.

In a possible implementation, n the method further includes: the seconddevice sending first priority information to the first device, whereinthe first priority information is configured to indicate a sequence ofprocessing network slices supported by the second device from themultiple network slices by the second device.

In a possible implementation manner, the second device is a terminaldevice, the first device is a network device, and the method furtherincludes: the terminal device updating the first priority informationaccording to a service requirement of the terminal device.

In a possible implementation, the second device is a terminal device andthe first device is an access network device, and the second devicesending first priority information to the first device includes: theterminal device sending the first priority information authenticated bya core network device to the access network device.

In one aspect, a device is provided for performing the method of theaspect or any possible implementation of the aspect described above. Inparticular, the device includes units for performing the method of theaspect or any possible implementation of the aspect described above.

In one aspect, a device is provided for performing the method of theaspect or any possible implementation of the aspect described above. Inparticular, the device includes units for performing the method of theaspect or any possible implementation of the aspect described above.

In one aspect, a device is provided, including: a memory, a processor, atransceiver, a communication interface, and a bus system. The memory,the processor and the transceiver are connected by a bus system. Thememory is used for storing instructions, the processor is used forexecuting instructions stored in the memory. The processor executes themethod of the above aspect when the instruction is executed, andcontrols the transceiver to receive input data and information, andoutputs data such as operation results.

In one aspect, a device is provided, including: a memory, a processor, atransceiver, a communication interface, and a bus system. The memory,the processor and the transceiver are connected by a bus system. Thememory is used for storing instructions, the processor is used forexecuting instructions stored in the memory. The processor executes themethod of the above aspect when the instruction is executed, andcontrols the transceiver to receive input data and information, andoutputs data such as operation results.

In one aspect, a computer storage medium is provided, for storingcomputer software instructions for use in the above method, including aprogram designed to perform the above aspects.

In the present application, names of the terminal device, the accessnetwork device and the core network device are not limited to the deviceitself. In actual implementation, these devices may appear under othernames. As long as functions of the respective devices are similar to thepresent disclosure, they are within the scope of the claims and theequivalents thereof.

These and other aspects of the present application will be more readilyapparent in the following description of the embodiments.

It should be understood that the above general description and thefollowing detailed description are merely exemplary and explanatory, andare not limiting of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the above general description and thefollowing detailed description are merely exemplary and explanatory, andare not limiting of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a possible application scenario of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a wireless communication method inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a wireless communicationmethod in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 shows another schematic block diagram of a wireless communicationmethod in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of a wireless communicationdevice in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows another schematic block diagram of a wireless communicationdevice in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 shows yet another schematic block diagram of a wirelesscommunication device in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 8 shows yet another schematic block diagram of a wirelesscommunication device in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosurewill be clearly and completely described in the following with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodimentsof the present disclosure can be applied to various communicationsystems, for example, the Global System of Mobile communication (“GSM”)system, Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”) system, Wideband CodeDivision Multiple Access (“WCDMA”) system, General Packet Radio Service(“GPRS”), Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) system, LTE Frequency DivisionDuplex (“FDD”) system, LTE Time Division Duplex (“TDD”), UniversalMobile Telecommunication System (“UMTS”) or Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access (“WiMAX”) communication system, or future 5Gsystem.

In particular, the technical solution of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure can be applied to various communication systems based onnon-orthogonal multiple access technologies, such as Sparse CodeMultiple Access (“SCMA”) system, and Low Density Signature (“LDS”)system, etc., Of course, the SCMA system and the LDS system may also bereferred to as other names in the field of communication. Further, thetechnical solution of the embodiments of the present disclosure may beapplied to Multi-carrier transmission system which adopts non-orthogonalmultiple access technology, for example, adopting Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing (“OFDM”), Filter Bank Multi-Carrier (“FBMC”),Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing (“GFDM”), and Filtered-OFDM(“F-OFDM”) system or the like.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present disclosure mayrefer to User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, asubscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remotestation, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, aterminal, and a wireless communication device, a user agent or a userdevice. The access terminal may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, aSession Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL)station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device or acomputing device with wireless communication functions or otherprocessing devices connected to wireless modems, an in-vehicle device, awearable device, a terminal device in the future 5G network or aterminal device in the future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)and the like, which are not limited in the embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

The network device in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be adevice for communicating with a terminal device, where the networkdevice may be a base station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in GSM orCDMA, or a base station (NodeB, NB) in a WCDMA system, or an evolvedbase station (Evolutional NodeB, eNB or eNodeB) in the LTE system, or awireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, orthe network device may be a relay station, an access point, anin-vehicle device, a wearable device, and a network device in a future5G network or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, whichis not limited by the embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of anembodiment of the present disclosure. The communication system in FIG. 1may include a terminal device 10 and a network device 20. The networkdevice 20 is configured to provide communication services for theterminal device 10 and access a core network. The terminal device 10accesses the network by searching for synchronization signals, broadcastsignals, and the like transmitted by the network device 20, therebyperforming communication with the network. The arrows shown in FIG. 1may represent uplink/downlink transmissions through a cellular linkbetween the terminal device 10 and the network device 20. In theembodiment, the network device 20 supports Slice 1, Slice 2, and Slice3, and the terminal device 10 supports Slice 1, Slice 2, and Slice 4.

A slice herein refers to a set of network functions (including corenetwork functions and/or access network functions), and any otherdescription having the same function has an equivalent effect.

In the future, logically, each network slice represents a type ofservice requirement of a certain type of terminal device. The networkdevice selects a corresponding network function to match a serviceaccording to service requirements of the terminal device, and forms acorresponding slice.

The most ideal way is to dynamically combine the functions of the corenetwork device and/or the access network device according to the servicerequirements of the terminal device, and then make configuration for theterminal device. For example, if a physical network terminal deviceneeds to be sent by a small packet, it needs to configure or activate arandom access function and a recovery function for the network; as for aterminal device that supports a licensed-assisted access (LAA), LAAfunctions may be configured or activated for the network if necessary.However, complexity of the network configuration in this manner is high,and the implementation is quite cumbersome. The simplified solution isthat the network device forms multiple matching slices in advanceaccording to the type of the terminal and the type of the service, andwhen the terminal device needs to use the corresponding slice, therequirement is sent to the network device, and then the network deviceconfigures the resources to the terminal device according to thecorresponding slice requirement.

In a network configuration process, although multiple network slices canbe supported at the same time, it need to solve the problem that how tohandle the residing and access of different slice terminals supportingdifferent slice under the limited resource. At the same time, theterminal device may simultaneously support multiple network slices, theterminal also needs to choose to use which network slice for residingand access, and let the network device learn about its own idea withrespect to different network slices, so that the network device canselect corresponding resources for itself better.

For convenience of description, the flow of the wireless communicationmethod 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will bebriefly described firstly with reference to FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2,the method 100 includes following steps.

In step S101, a device 1 determines network slice information, whereinthe network slice information is configured to indicate multiple networkslices.

S102, the device 1 sends the network slice information to a device 2.

S103, the device 2 receives the network slice information sent by thedevice 1.

S104, the device 1 determines, according to the network sliceinformation, at least one network slice supported by the device 2 fromthe multiple network slices.

S105, the device 1 determines a target network slice from the at leastone network slice determined in S103.

S106, the device 1 performs configuration or operation according to thetarget network slice.

It should be noted that the device 1 herein may be a terminal device ora network device; the device 2 may be a terminal device or a networkdevice. For convenience of description, the following describes theinteraction between the terminal device and the network device as anexample.

The network slice information herein may include slice information ofmultiple network slices, for example, functions supported by eachnetwork slice, a cell to which each network slice belongs, a probabilitythat the terminal device accesses each network slice, an identifier ofeach network slice, and priority of multiple network slices, and otherinformation. The network slice information herein may be configured toindicate multiple network slices supported by the device 1, and may alsoinclude network slices supported by other devices. For example, thenetwork device 1 sends multiple network slices supported by the networkdevice 1 to the terminal device, and may also send network slicessupported by neighboring network devices to assist the terminal deviceto perform reselection.

The configuration or operation herein may be the behavior of theterminal device or the network device, such as the terminal deviceresiding in a cell, the terminal device accessing the network device, orterminal device handing-over a cell.

The target network slice herein can be one or more network slices.

Therefore, through the wireless communication method in the embodimentsof the present disclosure, by learning about network slice informationof a peer end, the condition of multiple network slices sent by the peerend can be learnt about; and accordingly, a target network slice can bebetter selected to perform wireless communication, so as to improve thequality of the wireless communication.

A wireless communication method according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure will be separately described from the perspective ofboth ends of the communication device, respectively, in conjunction withFIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a wireless communicationmethod 200 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.As shown in FIG. 3, the method 200 includes:

S210, a first device receiving network slice information sent by asecond device, the network slice information being configured toindicate multiple network slices;

S220, the first device determining a target network slice from themultiple network slices according to the network slice information, thetarget network slice including at least one network slice supported bythe first device; and

S230, the first device performing wireless communication according tothe target network slice.

It should be understood that the first device performing wirelesscommunication may be communicating with the second device, or may becommunicating with other devices except the second device. For example,the network slice information includes information of network slicessupported by other devices. The first device selects the target networkslice to perform wireless communication with other devices.

In an embodiment, the first device is a terminal device, and the seconddevice is a network device. The network device may broadcast the sliceinformation of multiple network slices to multiple terminal devices.After the terminal device receives the slice information of multiplenetwork slices sent by the network device, the terminal device selectsat least one network slice supported by itself from the multiple networkslices, and then the terminal device determines a target network slicefrom the selected at least one network slice, thereby accessing thenetwork device according to the target network slice or residing in acell of the target network slice. For example, if the network sliceinformation received by the terminal device includes slice informationof Slice1, Slice2, Slice3, Slice4, and Slice5 while the terminal devicesupports Slice1, Slice2, and Slice6, at least one network slice selectedby the terminal device may be Slice1 and Slice2. If the terminal deviceprocesses Slice1 with a priority higher than Slice2, the terminal deviceselects Slice1 from Slice1 and Slice2 as the target network slice.

In another embodiment, the first device is a network device, and thesecond device is a terminal device. The terminal device may send, to thenetwork device, slice information of multiple network slices. After thenetwork device receives the slice information of the multiple networkslices sent by the terminal device, the network device selects at leastone network slice supported by itself from the multiple network slices,and then the network device determines a target network slice from theselected at least one network slice, thereby configuring or selecting acell to handover or reside for the terminal device according to thetarget network slice. For example, if the network slice informationreceived by the network device includes slice information of Slice1,Slice2, Slice3, Slice4, and Slice5 while the network device supportsSlice1, Slice2, and Slice6, at least one network slice selected by thenetwork device may be Slice1 and Slice2. If the network device processesSlice1 with a priority higher than Slice2, the network device selectsSlice1 from Slice1 and Slice2 as the target network slice.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the methodfurther includes: the first device acquiring first priority informationand/or second priority information, wherein the first priorityinformation is configured to indicate a sequence of processing networkslices supported by the second device from the multiple network slicesby the second device, the second priority information is configured toindicate a sequence of processing network slices supported by the firstdevice; wherein the first device determining a target network slice fromthe multiple network slices according to the network slice informationincludes: the first device determining the target network slice from themultiple network slices according to the first priority informationand/or the second priority information.

For example, the network device sends priority information of thenetwork slice supported by five network devices Slice1, Slice2, Slice3,Slice4, and Slice5 to the terminal device, such asSlice1>Slice2>Slice3>Slice4>Slice5. The terminal device supports threenetwork slices Slice1, Slice2 and Slice 3, and Slice1<Slice3<Slice2. Theterminal device can select the network slice Slice1 that is mostpreferentially processed by the network device from Slice1, Slice2, andSlice3. The terminal device can also select the network slice Slice2that is most preferentially processed by the terminal device fromSlice1, Slice2, and Slice3. The terminal device may also select thefirst two network slices Slice1 and Slice2 that are preferentiallyprocessed by the network device from Slice1, Slice2, and Slice3. Theterminal device may also select the first two network slices Slice2 andSlice3 that are preferentially processed by the terminal device fromSlice1, Slice2, and Slice3. The terminal device may also select Slice2that is preferentially processed by both the network device and theterminal device. The terminal device may process the priority of themultiple network slices according to the network device, and/or theterminal device handles the priority of multiple network devices todetermine the target network slice. The target network slice can beeither one or more. The present disclosure is not limited thereto.

It should be understood that the first priority information and thesecond priority information of the embodiment of the present disclosuremay be pre-configured by the network device and/or the terminal device,or may also be determined by the network device and/or the terminaldevice according to a service state in a period of time. The manner ofdetermining the priority information is not limited in the embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

In addition, the first priority information and/or the second priorityinformation herein may be associated with the network slice feature. Forexample, the priority of the corresponding network slice may bedetermined according to the identifier and priority information of thenetwork slice. For example, the network slice supporting the function 1,function 2, and function 3 is identified as Slice1, and the networkslice supporting the function 2, function 3, and function 4 isidentified as Slice2. If the priority of the function 1 is greater thanthat of function 2, much greater than that of function 3, and furthermuch greater than that of function 4, it can be determined that thepriority of Slice1 is higher than that of Slice2.

It should also be understood that the network slice supported by thefirst device herein may refer to a part of network slices including thetarget network slice, or may refer to all network slices supported bythe first device; and the network slice supported by the second deviceherein may refer to a part of network slices including the targetnetwork slice, or may also refer to all network slices supported by thesecond device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the networkslice information includes the first priority information, and the firstdevice acquiring the first priority information includes: the firstdevice acquiring the first priority information from the network sliceinformation.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminaldevice residing in a cell to which the target network slice belongsaccording to the target network slice includes: the terminal deviceresiding in a cell to which the target network slice belongs accordingto the target network slice, when determining that a network slice withhighest priority from network slices supported by the network device andprocessed by the network device and a network slice with highestpriority from network slices supported by the terminal device andprocessed by the terminal device are identical.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the networkslice information further includes a probability of the terminal deviceto access each of the multiple network slices, the terminal deviceaccessing the network device according to the target network sliceincludes: the terminal device accessing the network device according toa probability of a service of the terminal device to access the targetnetwork slice.

Optional, the access network device receiving the first priorityinformation authenticated by a core network device and sent by theterminal device, and/or the method 200 further includes: the accessnetwork device sending the first priority information to a core networkdevice when determining that the first priority information needs to beauthenticated; the access network device receiving an acknowledgementmessage of the priority information sent by the core network device.

Optionally, the terminal device may send the priority information to thecore network device by using the signaling of an access layer or anon-access stratum, and the core network device feeds back to the accessnetwork device after completing the verification and confirmation. Theterminal device may also send the priority information to the accessnetwork device directly through the access layer, and if necessary, theaccess network device forwards the information to the core networkdevice for verification and confirmation.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic block diagram of a wireless communicationmethod 300 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.As shown in FIG. 4, the method 300 includes:

S310, a second device determining network slice information, wherein thenetwork slice information is configured to indicate multiple networkslices;

S320, the second device sending the network slice information to a firstdevice.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the methodfurther includes: the second device sending first priority informationto the first device, wherein the first priority information isconfigured to indicate a sequence of processing network slices supportedby the second device from the multiple network slices by the seconddevice.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the seconddevice is a terminal device, the first device is a network device, andthe method further includes: the terminal device updating the firstpriority information according to a service requirement of the terminaldevice.

For example, the terminal device supports Slice1, Slice2, and Slice3. Ifa current service of the terminal device is function 1 and only Slice1supports the function 1, the terminal device may preferentially selectSlice1 to access the network device. If the current service of theterminal device is updated to a function 2 and only Slice 2 supports thefunction 2, the terminal device can preferentially select Slice 2 toaccess the network device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the seconddevice is a terminal device and the first device is an access networkdevice, and the second device sending first priority information to thefirst device includes: the terminal device sending the first priorityinformation authenticated by a core network device to the access networkdevice.

It is to be understood that the various examples described above aremerely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of theembodiments of the disclosure.

The priority and its use of network slices in the embodiment of thepresent disclosure are described in detail below with reference to twoembodiments.

Embodiment 1: priority and use of cell network slices

In order to solve the access problem of terminals with different networkslicing capabilities in the cell, the network device broadcasts theslice priority to the terminal, to indicate the slice capability ofpreferentially accessing and processing in the cell, which includes theterminal residing priority, such as the terminal with the slicecapability 1 preferentially residing in the cell 1; may also include theterminal slice access probability, that is, the terminal initiating theaccess according to a certain probability when accessing the terminal.When the terminal uses different slice capabilities to access, theterminal may preferentially select corresponding network slice resourcesfor access according to its own slice capability.

An idle state operation: when the terminal initially resides, theterminal selects a first cell that can be accessed to reside, andmeanwhile receives information such as slice information (sliceidentifier, slice priority) sent by the cell. When the slice prioritysent by the cell does not match the slice function of the terminal (forexample, the cell slice priority is to preferentially process enhancedmobile broadband services, and the terminal slice priority is topreferentially process massive low-power connection services), othercells are selected to reside through reselection. The cell accessed atthis time can send slice information of neighboring cells, to assist theterminal to perform reselection.

A connection state operation: when the terminal initiates initial accessof a certain slice, the terminal may access according to informationsuch as an access probability of a corresponding slice included in theslice information. When the function that the terminal wants to startcan be completed by multiple slices (for example, the packettransmission can be completed through enhanced mobile broadband orthrough massive low-power connection), a corresponding slice with thehighest priority is selected to complete the access.

Embodiment 2: Terminal slice priority and use of the terminal

The terminal initiates the corresponding slice priority according to itsown capabilities and/or service requirements, and performs idle statenetwork residing according to the priority. Under a connected state, bynotifying the network of the network priority information, it may assistthe network to perform handing-over towards the terminal.

An idle state operation: when the terminal resides in the idle state,considering the network slicing function possessed by multiple cells andits own terminal slicing function priority, it is preferably to select acell to which the slicing function with high priority belongs to reside.For example, a network cell A supports slices 1, 2, a network cell Bsupports slices 2, 3, the terminal supports slices 1, 2, and the slice 1has higher priority, then the terminal preferentially resides in thenetwork cell A. If the terminal only supports slice 2, it is feasible toreside in either cell A or cell B.

A connection state operation: when the terminal performs handing-over inthe connected state, the network preferably selects the cell to whichthe slice function with high priority belongs for handing-over,according to the slice function priority reported by the terminal. Forexample, network cells A and B are both target cells for handing-over,wherein the network cell A supports slices 1, 2, the network cell Bsupports slices 2, 3, the terminal supports slices 1, 3, and the slice 1has higher priority, then the network may preferentially handover theterminal to the network cell A. If the terminal only supports the slice2, it is feasible to handover to either cell A or cell B.

Therefore, in the wireless communication method in the embodiment of thepresent disclosure, it enables the terminal to select the most suitableaccess point for access by notifying information of different networkslices of the peer end and the processing priority for different networkslices. In addition, it enables the network to learn about the slicepriority of the terminal when supporting multiple slice functions, so asto better match the terminal residing, access and handing-over behavior,and improve experience of end users.

In addition, in the foregoing method embodiments, steps on the terminaldevice side may be separately implemented as the wireless communicationmethod on the terminal device side, and steps on the network device sidemay be separately implemented as the wireless communication method onthe network device side. In each of the foregoing method embodiments,the network device is usually a base station, and the terminal device isusually user equipment.

It should be understood that the interaction between the network deviceand the terminal device, the related features and functions at thenetwork device are corresponding to the related features and functionsat the terminal device side. For brevity, details are not repeatedherein.

It should also be understood that, in various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the sequence numbers of the above processes do not imply asequence of executions, and an execution order of the processes shouldbe determined by its function and internal logic, but should not be makeany limitation on implementation of embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

The wireless communication method according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure is described in detail above. Hereinafter, a wirelesscommunication device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure will be described with reference to FIG. 5 to FIG. 8. Thetechnical features described in the method embodiments are applicable tothe following device embodiments.

FIG. 5 shows a wireless communication device 400 in accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5, the device isa first device, and the device 400 includes:

a receiving unit 410, configured to receive network slice informationsent by a second device, the network slice information being configuredto indicate multiple network slices;

a determining unit 420, configured to determine a target network slicefrom the multiple network slices according to the network sliceinformation, the target network slice including at least one networkslice supported by the first device;

a communicating unit 430, configured to perform wireless communicationaccording to the target network slice.

Therefore, in the wireless communication device in the embodiments ofthe present disclosure, by learning about network slice information of apeer end, the condition of multiple network slices sent by the peer endcan be learnt about; and accordingly, a target network slice can bebetter selected to perform wireless communication, so as to improve thequality of the wireless communication.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the devicefurther includes:

an acquiring unit 440, configured to acquire first priority informationand/or second priority information, wherein the first priorityinformation is configured to indicate a sequence of processing networkslices supported by the second device from the multiple network slicesby the second device, the second priority information is configured toindicate a sequence of processing network slices supported by the firstdevice;

the determining unit 420 is configured to:

determine the target network slice from the multiple network slicesaccording to the first priority information and/or the second priorityinformation.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the networkslice information includes the first priority information, and theacquiring unit 440 acquiring the first priority information includes:

acquiring the first priority information from the network sliceinformation.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the firstdevice is a terminal device, the second device is a network device, andthe communicating unit 430 is configured to:

access the network device according to the target network slice; and/or

reside in a cell to which the target network slice belongs according tothe target network slice.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the firstdevice is a network device, the second device is a terminal device, andthe communicating unit 430 is configured to:

perform resource configuration for the terminal device according to thetarget network slice; and/or

handover or redirect the terminal device to a cell to which the targetnetwork slice belongs according to the target network slice.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, thecommunicating unit 430 residing in a cell to which the target networkslice belongs according to the target network slice includes:

residing in a cell to which the target network slice belongs accordingto the target network slice, when determining that a network slice withhighest priority from network slices supported by the network device andprocessed by the network device and a network slice with highestpriority from network slices supported by the terminal device andprocessed by the terminal device are identical.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the networkslice information further includes a probability of the terminal deviceto access each of the multiple network slices, the communication unit430 accessing the network device according to the target network sliceincludes:

accessing the network device according to a probability of a service ofthe terminal device to access the target network slice.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the firstdevice is an access network device, the second device is a terminaldevice, and the acquiring unit 440 acquiring first priority informationincludes:

receiving the first priority information authenticated by a core networkdevice and sent by the terminal device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the firstdevice is an access network device and the second device is a terminaldevice, and the device further includes:

a sending unit 450, configured to send the first priority information toa core network device when determining that the first priorityinformation needs to be authenticated;

the receiving unit 410 is further configured to:

receive an acknowledgement message of the priority information sent bythe core network device.

Therefore, in the wireless communication device in the embodiment of thepresent disclosure, it enables the terminal to select the most suitableaccess point for access by notifying information of different networkslices of the peer end and the processing priority for different networkslices. In addition, it enables the network to learn about the slicepriority of the terminal when supporting multiple slice functions, so asto better match the terminal residing, access and handing-over behavior,and improve experience of end users.

It should be understood that the wireless communication device 400according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may correspond tothe first device in the method embodiment of the present disclosure, andthe above and other operations and/or functions of respective units inthe device 400 are respectively implemented to implement correspondingflow of the method in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4, which will not be repeatedherein for brevity.

FIG. 6 shows a wireless communication device 500 in accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6, the device isa second device, and the device 500 includes:

a determining unit 510, configured to determine network sliceinformation, wherein the network slice information is configured toindicate multiple network slices;

a sending unit 520, configured to send the network slice information toa first device.

Therefore, in the wireless communication device in the embodiments ofthe present invention, by learning about network slice information of apeer end, the condition of multiple network slices sent by the peer endcan be learnt about; and accordingly, a target network slice can bebetter selected to perform wireless communication, so as to improve thequality of the wireless communication.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the sendingunit 520 is further configured to:

send first priority information to the first device, wherein the firstpriority information is configured to indicate a sequence of processingnetwork slices supported by the second device from the multiple networkslices by the second device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the seconddevice is a terminal device, the first device is a network device, andthe device further includes:

an updating unit 530, configured to update the first priorityinformation according to a service requirement of the terminal device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the seconddevice is a terminal device and the first device is an access networkdevice, and the sending unit 520 sending first priority information tothe first device includes:

sending the first priority information authenticated by a core networkdevice to the access network device.

Therefore, in the wireless communication device in the embodiment of thepresent disclosure, it enables the terminal to select the most suitableaccess point for access by notifying information of different networkslices of the peer end and the processing priority for different networkslices. In addition, it enables the network to learn about the slicepriority of the terminal when supporting multiple slice functions, so asto better match the terminal residing, access and handing-over behavior,and improve experience of end users.

It should be understood that the wireless communication device 500according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may correspond tothe second device in the method embodiment of the present disclosure,and the above and other operations and/or functions of respective unitsin the device 500 are respectively implemented to implementcorresponding flow of the method in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4, which will not berepeated herein for brevity.

As shown in FIG. 7, an embodiment of the present disclosure furtherprovides a wireless communication device 600. The device 600 is a firstdevice. The device 600 includes a processor 610, a memory 620, a bussystem 630, and a transceiver 640. The processor 610, the memory 620,and the transceiver 640 are connected by the bus system 630. The memory620 is configured to store instructions. The processor 610 is used forexecuting the instructions stored by the memory 620, to control thetransceiver 640 to send a signal. The processor 610 is configured to:receive network slice information sent by a second device, the networkslice information being configured to indicate multiple network slices;determine a target network slice from the multiple network slicesaccording to the network slice information, the target network sliceincluding at least one network slice supported by the first device; andperform wireless communication according to the target network slice.

Therefore, in the wireless communication device in the embodiments ofthe present invention, by learning about network slice information of apeer end, the condition of multiple network slices sent by the peer endcan be learnt about; and accordingly, a target network slice can bebetter selected to perform wireless communication, so as to improve thequality of the wireless communication.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the processor 610 may be a central processing unit (“CPU”),and the processor 610 may also be other general-purpose processors,digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or otherprogrammable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logic devices,discrete hardware components, and the like. The general purposeprocessor may be a microprocessor or the processor or any conventionalprocessor or the like.

The memory 620 can include read only memory and random access memory,and provides instructions and data to the processor 610. A portion ofthe memory 620 can also include a non-volatile random access memory. Forexample, the memory 620 can also store information of the device type.

The bus system 630 may include a power bus, a control bus, a statussignal bus, and the like in addition to the data bus. However, forclarity of description, various buses are labeled as bus system 630 inthe figure.

In the implementation process, each step of the above method may becompleted by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor610 or an instruction in a form of software. The steps of the methoddisclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be directlyimplemented as being performed by a hardware processor, or may beperformed by a combination of hardware and software modules in theprocessor. The software module can be located in a conventional storagemedium such as random access memory, flash memory, read only memory,programmable read only memory or electrically erasable programmablememory, register, and the like. The storage medium is located in thememory 620, and the processor 610 reads the information in the memory620 and completes the steps of the above method in combination with itshardware. To avoid repetition, it will not be described in detailherein.

It should be understood that the wireless communication device 600according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may correspond tothe first device and device 400 in the method embodiment of the presentdisclosure, and may correspond to the first device in the methodaccording to the embodiment of the present disclosure, and the above andother operations and/or functions of respective units in the device 600are respectively implemented to implement corresponding flow of themethod in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4, which will not be repeated herein forbrevity.

As shown in FIG. 8, an embodiment of the present disclosure furtherprovides a wireless communication device 700. The device 700 is a firstdevice. The device 700 includes a processor 710, a memory 720, a bussystem 730, and a transceiver 740. The processor 710, the memory 720,and the transceiver 740 are connected by the bus system 730. The memory720 is configured to store instructions. The processor 710 is used forexecuting the instructions stored by the memory 720, to control thetransceiver 740 to send a signal. The processor 710 is configured to:determine network slice information, wherein the network sliceinformation is configured to indicate multiple network slices; send thenetwork slice information to a first device.

Therefore, in the wireless communication device in the embodiments ofthe present invention, by learning about network slice information of apeer end, the condition of multiple network slices sent by the peer endcan be learnt about; and accordingly, a target network slice can bebetter selected to perform wireless communication, so as to improve thequality of the wireless communication.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the processor 710 may be a central processing unit (“CPU”),and the processor 710 may also be other general-purpose processors,digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or otherprogrammable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logic devices,discrete hardware components, and the like. The general purposeprocessor may be a microprocessor or the processor or any conventionalprocessor or the like.

The memory 720 can include read only memory and random access memory,and provides instructions and data to the processor 710. A portion ofthe memory 720 can also include a non-volatile random access memory. Forexample, the memory 720 can also store information of the device type.

The bus system 730 may include a power bus, a control bus, a statussignal bus, and the like in addition to the data bus. However, forclarity of description, various buses are labeled as bus system 730 inthe figure.

In the implementation process, each step of the above method may becompleted by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor710 or an instruction in a form of software. The steps of the methoddisclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be directlyimplemented as being performed by a hardware processor, or may beperformed by a combination of hardware and software modules in theprocessor. The software module can be located in a conventional storagemedium such as random access memory, flash memory, read only memory,programmable read only memory or electrically erasable programmablememory, register, and the like. The storage medium is located in thememory 720, and the processor 710 reads the information in the memory720 and completes the steps of the above method in combination with itshardware. To avoid repetition, it will not be described in detailherein.

It should be understood that the wireless communication device 700according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may correspond tothe second device and device 500 in the method embodiment of the presentdisclosure, and may correspond to the second device in the methodaccording to the embodiment of the present disclosure, and the above andother operations and/or functions of respective units in the device 700are respectively implemented to implement corresponding flow of themethod in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4, which will not be repeated herein forbrevity.

It should be understood that in the embodiment of the presentdisclosure, “B corresponding to A” means that B is associated with A,and B can be determined according to A. However, it should also beunderstood that determining B according to A does not mean that B isdetermined solely from A, and that B can also be determined based on Aand/or other information.

It should be understood that, the term “and/or” in this context ismerely an association describing the associated objects, indicating thatthere may be three relationships, for example, A and/or B, which mayindicate that A exists separately, both A and B exist, and B existsseparately. In addition, the character “/” herein generally indicates an“or” relationship of contextual objects.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the sequence numbers of the above processes do not mean theorder of execution, and the order of execution of each process should bedetermined by its function and internal logic, and should not be takento constitute any limitation to the implementation process ofembodiments of the present disclosure.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units andalgorithm steps of the various examples described in connection with theembodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardwareor a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whetherthese functions are performed in hardware or software depends on thespecific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Aperson skilled in the art can use different methods for implementing thedescribed functions for each particular application, but suchimplementation should not be considered to go beyond the scope of thepresent disclosure.

A person skilled in the art can clearly understand that for theconvenience and brevity of the description, the specific working processof the system, the device and the unit described above can refer to thecorresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, and detailsare not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided by the present disclosure, it shouldbe understood that the disclosed systems, apparatuses, and methods maybe implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodimentsdescribed above are merely illustrative. For example, the division ofthe unit is only a logical function division. In actual implementation,there may be another division manner. For example, a plurality of unitsor components may be combined or integrated into another system, or somefeatures can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the coupling ordirect coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be anindirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces,apparatuses or units, which may be electrical, mechanical or otherwise.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physicallyseparated, and the components displayed as units may or may not bephysical units. That is, they may be located in one place, or may bedistributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may beselected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of thetechnical solution of the embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the presentdisclosure may be integrated into one processing module, or each unitmay exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integratedinto one unit.

The functions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium ifimplemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or usedas a standalone product. Based on such understanding, the technicalsolution of the present disclosure which is essential or a partcontributes to the prior art, or a part of the technical solution, maybe embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in astorage medium, including instructions to cause a computer device (whichmay be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to performall or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodimentsof the present disclosure. The foregoing storage medium includes: a Udisk, a mobile hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random AccessMemory (RAM), a disk, or an optical disk or other media that can storeprogram codes.

The above is only the specific embodiment of the present disclosure, butthe scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and anyperson skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutionswithin the technical scope of the present disclosure and they should becovered by the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope ofthe disclosure should be determined by the scope of the claim.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless communication method, comprising: afirst device receiving network slice information sent by a seconddevice, wherein the network slice information is to indicate multiplenetwork slices; the first device determining a target network slice fromthe multiple network slices according to the network slice information,the target network slice comprising at least one network slice supportedby the first device; and the first device performing wirelesscommunication according to the target network slice; wherein the firstdevice is a terminal device and the second device is a network device;and wherein the method further comprises: the first device acquiring atleast one of first priority information and second priority informationat an initial attach phase of the first device, wherein the firstpriority information is to indicate a sequence of processing networkslices supported by the second device, the second priority informationis to indicate a sequence of processing network slices supported by thefirst device; wherein the first device determining the target networkslice from the multiple network slices according to the network sliceinformation comprises: the first device determining the target networkslice from the multiple network slices according to at least one of thefirst priority information and the second priority information.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the network slice informationcomprises the first priority information, and the first device acquiringthe first priority information comprises: the first device acquiring thefirst priority information from the network slice information.
 3. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the first device performingwireless communication according to the target network slice comprisesat least one of: the terminal device accessing the network deviceaccording to the target network slice; and the terminal device residingin a cell having the target network slice according to the targetnetwork slice.
 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the terminaldevice residing in a cell having the target network slice according tothe target network slice comprises: in the case that a network slicewith highest priority from network slices supported by the networkdevice and a network slice with highest priority from network slicessupported by the terminal device are identical, the terminal deviceresiding in a cell having the target network slice according to thetarget network slice.
 5. The method according to claim 3, wherein thenetwork slice information further comprises a probability of theterminal device to access each of the multiple network slices, theterminal device accessing the network device according to the targetnetwork slice comprises: the terminal device accessing the networkdevice according to the probability to access the target network slice.6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: in the that anetwork slice with highest priority from network slices supported by thenetwork device and a network slice with highest priority from networkslices supported by the terminal device are different, the terminaldevice selects a cell under another network device by means ofreselection for residing.
 7. A wireless communication method,comprising: a second device determining network slice information,wherein the network slice information is to indicate multiple networkslices; and the second device sending the network slice information to afirst device; the second device sending first priority information tothe first device, wherein the first priority information is to indicatea sequence of processing network slices supported by the second device;wherein the second device is a terminal device, the first device is anetwork device, wherein the terminal device updating the first priorityinformation according to a service requirement of the terminal device;and wherein the first device determines the network slice informationfrom the multiple network slices according to the first priorityinformation.
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the seconddevice sending first priority information to the first device comprises:the terminal device sending the first priority information authenticatedby a core network device to an access network device.
 9. A wirelesscommunication device, wherein the device is a first device, and thedevice comprises a memory, a processor, a transceiver, and acommunication interface, wherein the memory is stored with instructions,which when executing on the processor, causes the wireless communicationdevice to: receive, by the transceiver, network slice information sentby a second device, wherein the network slice information is to indicatemultiple network slices; determine, by the processor, a target networkslice from the multiple network slices according to the network sliceinformation, the target network slice comprising at least one networkslice supported by the first device; and perform wireless communication,by the communication interface, according to the target network slice;wherein the first device is a terminal device and the second device is anetwork device; and wherein the wireless communication device is furthercaused to: acquire, by the transceiver, at least one of first priorityinformation and second priority information at an initial attach phaseof the first device, wherein the first priority information is toindicate a sequence of processing network slices supported by the seconddevice, the second priority information is to indicate a sequence ofprocessing network slices supported by the first device; and determine,by the processor, the target network slice from the multiple networkslices according to at least one of the first priority information andthe second priority information; wherein the first device determines thetarget network slice from the multiple network slices according to thefirst priority information.
 10. The device according to claim 9, whereinthe network slice information comprises the first priority information,and the acquiring the first priority information comprises: acquiringthe first priority information from the network slice information. 11.The device according to claim 9, wherein wireless communication deviceis further caused to perform at least one of: accessing, by thecommunication interface, the network device according to the targetnetwork slice; and residing, by the communication interface, in a cellhaving the target network slice according to the target network slice.